Saturday, December 16, 2017

This piece is going to be part of a larger installation piece I'm working on. I wanted to capture the feeling of practicing Bagua Zhang, an internal art which teaches one how to harmonize with nature. In Bagua Zhang, the practitioner moves in continuous circular and spiraling formations, focusing internally, transforming, and extending beyond oneself. The forms in this piece are all based off movements in Bagua Zhang. I wanted the forms to be reminiscent of trees with the internal (qi) flowing along the outside of the forms and the external (branches) flowing along the inside. Each tree form is slightly different from the next. As the spiraling reservoirs of qi unblock, color spills forth and the texture becomes more fluid, just as the Bagua Zhang practitioner must learn to become fluid in order to harmonize with themselves and connect with their surroundings.

Friday, December 15, 2017

Time shows the the aging of glass bottles in various ways. The glass appears thick, strong, and heavy, but when cut through, it becomes light. The attention is drawn from the bottles, to the space cutting through them. The aging shown in the bottles is futher mimicked by the clay, which covers several of the smaller bottles, slowly drying over time. The clay starts out damp and thick, but as time goes on, it dries, cracking as it thins.

"La Tierra Debe Ser De Quien La Trabajan Con Sus Manos" (The Land Should Belong to Those Who Work with Their Hands)
2017
1'x6'x4'
Cardboard, American flag, nails, berries, cranberries

An extension of "La Tierra Debe Ser De Quien La Trabajan Con Sus Manos," this work also uses berries and their stains to represent the bloodshed of capitalistic exploitation of farmworkers. The removal of the figure allows a more open reading of the work, which allows the viewer to question the moral standing of the United States and any sense of patriotism for it.

This work was inspired by the farmworkers' rights movement campaign slogan, "There's blood on the grapes." The violent pinning of the produce to the flag, and the spilling of their juice is representative of the violence and suffering of many undocumented farmworkers that work to grow our food.

This sculpture collage discusses the lasting effects of colonization, and how we continue to be taught about the Catholic saints that the colonizers used (and continue to use) to control brown and black people, but never learn about the indigenous warriors that fought & fight for the land and the people. How indigenous practices were made illegal, and are still demonized. How conversion to Catholicism was forced, and still used to instill rigid binary gender roles, the exploitation of the environment & of people. This piece also reflects on how mi mami and many people have found community and solace in catholic prayer and practice. How my blood is both of the colonizers and the colonized. And how my spiritual practice involves digging up my complicated, tangled-up, mestizx roots, reclaiming & replanting them. So with this piece, I pay homage to different ways of healing, and to my ancestral lineage of indigenous femme warriors who continue to protect the sacred.

Thursday, December 14, 2017

Lockers.

2017

Standard School Lockers, Found Objects

8' x 6' x 2'

By utilizing a set of six lockers, I hoped to experiment with the idea of six individual spaces, each confined to the space of one locker. Within each I aimed to experiment with the associations a viewer would make with a particular material. Essentially, I hoped to suggest six individual spaces through associations with material and minimal prop involvement rather than a literal depiction of a space.

The challenge of working with a material you can't fully control. Experimentation with water, leads to an unexpected, yet intriguing outcome. The sacks create cells of thought, each with a size and shape unlike the other. The forms are clearly malleable, encouraging the viewer to touch. The foam absorbs the water, while the polyfill exudes it. The suspension and distance away from the ceiling is important to the viewers perspective and what they take away from the piece. It plays with gravity, tension, liquid, movement, color, and shape all at once.

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

I wanted to put a spin on the integration of photography within sculpture. With this, I altered an image to leave evidence of a natural space being imposed by a humans touch. This image is encapsulated within the perimeters of a human hand. I then took the image and sliced it into individual paths, giving the piece movement and depth.

This pieces is the second of a series of arrangements. The arrangement often consist of domestic household items. Taking a chunk of an interior space that is very relatable to most people and placing presenting it in a new setting is interesting. It alters the viewers relationship to the object as well as their own experiences due to its ability to be so relatable yet general at the same time.

Monday, December 11, 2017

This piece is a continuation of the Body series where I seek to explore creating the structure of the human figure through space and shape. Using these more subtle pieces to create form has been an interesting exploration as I've sought to branch away from the "perfect form" that often ends up being used in figurative work. This piece in particular was derived from my recent interest in the shape of the circle and bringing that forward to create a figure became fascinating to me. Another key to these pieces is the idea that as the viewer walks around the piece information begins to come forward and fall away and I think that idea went into the decision to make this one, like Body (one), a floor piece as opposed to a wall piece, though I may still experiment with creating it on the wall.